The invention relates to a method for remote activation of an air-conditioning function of a motor vehicle and to a computer program product that can be executed on a mobile communication appliance.
For vehicles with remote starting, i.e. those in which the engine can be started by radio remote control or an app, for example in order to air-condition the vehicle in advance, it is necessary to ensure that the vehicle is in a safe environment at the time. By way of example, remote starting would be particularly safety-critical if the vehicle were in a closed space, such as a garage, since the resultant exhaust gases mean that the health of persons entering the garage is damaged.
DE 10 2012 014 478 A1 describes a method for starting an engine of a vehicle by transmitting a start signal to a communication unit that is present in the vehicle using a mobile communication unit. This involves ascertaining a condition of the environment of the vehicle beforehand and starting the engine of the basis of the ascertained condition of the environment. In this case, the vehicle comprises a sensor system that can be used to determine the CO2 concentration of the environment, for example, or to establish whether the vehicle is in a closed space and what is the volume of this space. The sensors provided in this case may be cameras or ultrasonic sensors. It is also possible to take account of information that is known from data sources, e.g. via mobile internet, on the basis of a known position. By way of example, loss of GPS reception together with slow travel allows entry into a sheltered garage to be detected. The distance traveled after the loss of GPS reception, e.g. ascertained by the wheel rotation sensors, can be converted into a minimum space volume, or the navigation database can be used to ascertain parking garages or garages on the basis of position.
Such a method is relatively elaborate, however, particularly as far as the measurement and computation effort is concerned. In addition, such methods are also relatively inaccurate and are based on estimates, such as the determination of the minimum volume. Resorting to a navigation database is also unsatisfactory, since usually not all parking garages and above all not all garages or other closed spaces are stored in such a navigation database.
Further methods known from the related art provide for the remote start running time of the engine to be limited, particularly to very short running times, such as a maximum of 10 minutes, and for such remote starting to be permitted only a maximum of twice per idle phase of the motor vehicle. However, this restricts the air-conditioning comfort to an extreme degree, since the short remote start running times mean that desired target temperatures are reached only rarely.